


A Study on the Nature of Kissing

by of_shadows_and_wolves



Category: Dash & Lily (TV), Dash and Lily's Book of Dares - Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
Genre: F/M, I am so fucking soft for this goddamn show I have watched it twice now, I find myself relating to him a little bit to much, Kissing, Literally tooth rotting fluff, This show has a n appalling lack of content for it and I am doing my part to change that, a kind of character study of dash, literally love it so much, shameless fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:48:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27761749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/of_shadows_and_wolves/pseuds/of_shadows_and_wolves
Summary: There was no logical explanation, absolutely zero basis in any sort of science, religion, or philosophy, to explain just why Lily tasted like Christmas. It wasn’t that she was wearing some kind of greasy artificial lip gloss that tasted like someone’s vague notions of a stale sugar cookie or a wannabe candy cane. No she tasted like cinnamon and ginger and toffee and yes even peppermint.Alternate Title: A Treatise on what it is like to Kiss a Girl who Tastes like Christmas, when You Yourself are a Grouchy Curmudgeon
Relationships: Dash/Lily (Dash & Lily)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 106





	A Study on the Nature of Kissing

There was no logical explanation, absolutely zero basis in any sort of science, religion, or philosophy, to explain just why Lily tasted like Christmas. It wasn’t that she was wearing some kind of greasy artificial lip gloss that tasted like someone’s vague notions of a stale sugar cookie or a wannabe candy cane. No she tasted like cinnamon and ginger and toffee and yes even peppermint. She tasted like a goddamn Christmas tree and despite all of the impossibilities of that fact Dash found that he could not give a single solitary damn. 

Because she was there with him, she was there with him in the wonderland he had built for her, and she wasn’t going to Fiji, and she was kissing him. Kissing him with Christmas sweet lips that he found more intoxicating than any of the alcohol he has stolen from his father over the last few weeks. Behind him, echoing across midnight black skies muffled by a layer of glass and old books, fireworks went off as the ball dropped upon a mass of screaming drunk New Yorkers. But here? Here in his favorite place in the world, here in the Strand, he was kissing a girl who was not the girl of his dreams, but the girl of his reality. 

As Lily’s hands moved from around his hips to snarl and catch in his hair he began to think about how different kissing Lily was than any of the other girls he had kissed before. From drunken pecks during impromptu games of spin the bottle at late night parties, to those deeper more intimate kisses he had shared with Sophia when they had still been together. For one thing those kisses weren’t quite as Christmas-y as the ones he was sharing with Lily. During spin the bottle those girls had tasted like whatever booze they had managed to scavenge from their parents liquor cabinets, while Sophia had tasted like Sophia, an indescribable taste of wealth, luxury, and world travel. Once he had told himself that he had liked that taste that he couldn’t get enough of it, and now here it was being torn off whatever pedestal it was on in favor of the tastes of that horrid holiday that he could get at any halfway decent coffee shop or bakery. 

But it was beyond the taste of her mouth against his. None of those girls had ever kissed Dash the same way that Lily kissed him. Obviously the short drunken press of mouths had more often than not been brief and all too slick affairs of clacking teeth and too much tongue trying to be forced between his clenched lips. But even with Sofia, even after all that time they had been together, he never felt like she poured herself into it in the same way that Lily was doing it now. It was like with each press of their lips, each lingering touch of their hands on each other, each laughter filled break for air before diving right back in, she was trying to fill each second, each heartbeat, with just sheer and utter joy. And it wasn’t neat in any way, no it was obvious of Lily’s inexperience in the art of kissing but it wasn’t sloppy in the same way that those drunk party girls had been. It obviously wasn’t as refined as Sophia had been, but it was better. Better because it was with her and Dash really and truly was a slave to his love for her. Hell, he had gone to a Jonas Brothers concert just to figure out how to get her back. 

“What is it, what’s wrong?” she panted pulling away, her brown eyes black with the way her pupils had blown up, “Am I doing it wrong? Oh jeez I am doing it wrong aren’t I? Is it my teeth, you know my dentist always said we should consider braces but…” He cut her off with a laugh and another breathless kiss that he only meant to be brief but quickly grew into a deeper and more passionate affair entirely. 

“It’s nothing,” he finally managed to say when they both came up for air again drunk on the taste and the smell of her lips and skin and very much not thinking straight, “Just thinking about all of the other girl’s I’ve kissed before.” She made a huffing sound and raised both her eyebrows as she pulled away from him, effectively sobering him and realizing what a stupid thing that was to say. 

He grimaced and reached for her again, “No that came out wrong, I just mean that I was comparing you to the other girls that I’ve kissed in the past!” 

Fuck. 

This time, Lily didn’t huff or raise her eyebrows. No this time she stood up and leaned against one of the towering bookshelves and looked at him expectantly. “Well,” she said after they stared at each other in silence for several long painful seconds as Dash tried desperately to figure out some way to climb out of the very, very, deep hole he had dug for himself, “I am very curious as to how you’ll explain this one Notebook Boy.” 

Dash grimaced again as below them a police car went screaming by, likely on it’s way to break up whatever drunken brawl had surely erupted. “What I meant to say,” he said slowly, rising off the plush window seat they had been on just a moment before, “Was that you are…” 

What even was she? How was he supposed to explain to her that kissing her felt like those early years before his parents split and before he built so many walls. How was he supposed to explain that kissing her felt like kissing someone who really and truly loved him for him. How was he supposed to explain that when he kissed her she tasted like a holiday that he had prided himself on hating. Wait, how long had he been quiet for? She was staring at him really intensely now, and he didn’t think she had been staring at him like that a moment ago. He really needed to say something. 

But yet no words came to his lips and she rolled her eyes and began to turn away. 

“You taste like Christmas,” he blurted, his words exploding out of him like the fireworks that had marked the beginning of this new year, “You taste like Christmas and I just can’t figure out why.” 

She was still staring at him, but now instead of looking at him like she was about to slap him or throw him out the window she just looked confused. And well, considering it was better than the potentiality of him screwing up this relationship again he was gonna call that a win. 

“I mean what is it,” he stammered anxiously running his hands through his tousled hair (some distant part of him began to think about how her hands had felt different too), “I mean you aren’t wearing like lip gloss or lipstick or anything so just what the hell Lily. Why do you taste like a damn holiday?” He tried to force a chuckle at the end but what came out was more of a wheeze if he was being generous. 

She continued to just stare at him, her eyes narrowing. “So you mean to say,” she started slowly, “That you are thinking about other girls while you kiss me.” She paused her to stare at him pointedly and he felt all the blood rush to his face. “Because I taste,” and here she punctuated her words with air quotes, “like Christmas, whatever that means.” 

Yeah, Dash thought to himself, I’m screwed may as well just kill whatever dignity survived the Macy’s trip. 

“You don’t,” he started before sighing and throwing himself down onto the cushion, “Look there’s no way I’m gonna be able to explain this without sounding like a total douche.” 

“No there really isn’t,” she said plopping down next to him before turning so that she could prop her red boots on his thighs, “But you’re gonna explain anyway.” 

God why did she have to look so cute right now, illuminated by the eternal light of the city. God all he wanted to do was to kiss her and not stop and let that be explanation enough. But when he looked at her he knew that he wasn’t getting any more kisses until he explained himself. 

He took a deep breath, letting the scents of greasy pizza, apple pie, and old books wash over and center him. “I really have not kissed that many girls,” he started, but was interrupted by a sharp laugh. He stared at  
her wide eyed but that just made her laugh harder. 

“Yeah right,” she crooned, kicking him playfully in the stomach, “You don’t expect me to believe that, do you?” 

“Well yeah, I mean it’s true,” she snorted and kicked at him again but he caught her foot, “It is!” 

“Yeah please, with that hair you must’ve been kissing girls left and right,” she snarked, pulling her foot out of her boot in order to poke him with it, “You probably had all of them lining up to get their chance.” 

“Stop that!” he smacked at her foot making her laugh as she tried to press it against his face, “Get your stinky foot out of my face!” 

She let out a mock gasp. “How dare you!” she cried, placing one hand to her chest and the other to her face in mock outrage, “And here I thought you said I smelled like Christmas.” 

“I said you tasted like Christmas,” he corrected (no use for him letting her know that she did in fact smell like Christmas), “And that was about your lips not your sweaty feet.” 

“My feet are not sweaty thank you very much. They smell of lavender and rosewater like all ladies do,” she wrinkled her nose as she looked at his own feet, “Unlike your disgusting man feet.”

This was not where he had expected this conversation to go if he was being honest with himself, but then it seemed like most of the things relating to Lily had never gone where he thought it would. He certainly hadn’t expected to spend his break gallivanting all across New York on a quest for some stranger and certainly hadn’t expected to be spending New Years in the Strand kissing a girl who tasted like Christmass. 

“You know you aren’t doing a very good job letting me explain myself,” he groused trying to shove her foot back into her boot. 

“Fine fine fine. Let’s see if you can pull yourself out of this one.” 

“Thank you. Now as I was saying I haven’t kissed that many girls before,” he ignored her laugh this time in favor of continuing, “But when I did it always felt, well half hearted I guess?” He turned to stare at her and found that she was staring at him with a different but no less intense look. He scooted closer to her and gently took her face between his hands. 

He didn’t think she was breathing as he slowly traced the line of her lips with a fingertip, drawing over the soft curve of her jaw and cheeks, rubbing a thumb across her temple. Her pupils were blown wide again as she looked at him, nothing but black voids that were pulling him in. Her mouth was swollen and red from all of the kissing they had done and he wanted nothing more than to lean down and kiss her again. But if he did that…

“When I kiss you,” he breathed, his voice barely more than a hushed whisper, “No, when you kiss me, it’s like you’re kissing me with all that you are. None of, none of the other people ever kissed me like that. There was always,” He broke off trying to find the words to explain something that he couldn’t even truly grasp himself. 

“A wall,” she finished for him. 

“A wall,” he agreed. 

She gazed at him, pupils still swollen wide, for a moment. Two moments. Three moments before finally saying, “It’s really hard to stay mad at you when you say things like that you know. It’s very rude.”  
He just grinned at that. “Well then,” he whispered to the space between their mouths, “Allow me to make it up you.” 

Even here, surrounded by books, surrounded by objects that he loved more than life itself, he knew that he wouldn’t find an answer to his question. That even with all of the knowledge that was held within their pages, even with a thousand different voices from a thousand different authors, not a single solitary one would be able to explain, just why it was that Lily tasted like Christmas. And you know? Dash just could not, and would not, bring himself to care. Not when there she was, pressed against him, kissing him with every single piece of herself.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey yall I hope you liked it! Comments and kudos are much loved!


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